Women’s Hockey Splits As Playoff Chase Tightens

A two-win weekend would have given Harvard coach Katey Stone a share of the NCAA Division I career wins record for women’s hockey. But a weekend journey to splitsville means that Stone and the No. 5 Crimson will have to keep looking for the victory while the ECAC regular-season title hangs in the balance.

Rensselaer (14-11-6, 11-5-4 ECAC), which stands tied with Harvard (17-6-4, 12-6-2) for third in the ECAC standings, made a push for playoff home ice with a home 3-2 overtime victory Friday night. But the Crimson kept pace with the Engineers by responding with a 2-1 victory at Union (5-26-1, 1-18-1) on Saturday.

HARVARD 2, UNION 1

There’s nothing like a match-up against a league bottom-dweller to cure a hangover from a heartbreaking loss.

But try as it might, the Crimson couldn’t quite put Friday night’s loss out of its head by the time of its Saturday matchup against the Dutchwomen.

Maybe lingering dissatisfaction isn’t such a bad thing.

“Everyone was a little upset about the score on Friday,” junior forward Kate Buesser said. “We came out a little stronger. We played with a little more intensity.”

The increased intensity proved necessary against a Union team that played better than its record might have suggested.

“Union was pretty tough—they hung in there with us,” freshman goaltender Laura Bellamy said. “We kind of just got through it. We just struggled as a whole...they contained us really well.”

Certainly the game had a different feel than Harvard’s 4-0 victory over Union at home on Jan. 22.

“They definitely came to play,” junior forward Katharine Chute said. “They put out their best effort.”

And the Dutchwomen held the Crimson scoreless for the entire first period.

Finally, Buesser found the back of the net off a rebound for Harvard’s first goal since the beginning of Friday’s third period.

“Hard work got her that goal,” Bellamy said.

Less than seven minutes later, it was Randi Griffin’s turn. The senior scored a power-play goal off assists from defensemen junior Leanna Coskren and co-captain Kathryn Farni.

And the two-goal lead was enough to hold off Union, which scored midway through the second to put the game within one. Chelsea Heinhuis was the only Dutchwoman to solve junior Kylie Stephens, who made 13 saves in net for her first win since returning to the team last month.

“She did a great job,” Chute said.

The weekend gave Stone the chance to tie former Colby and Minnesota coach Laura Halldorson’s career wins mark, but Friday’s loss prevented President’s Day weekend from becoming a Stone coronation. Saturday’s win gives Harvard a chance to get Stone the nod in the regular season’s final weekend.

“She’s never one to boast about her career,” Buesser said. “It means something to be a Harvard hockey player. She’s built a program that is truly respected. It’s very much because of what she’s done and how she coaches.”

RENSSELAER 3, HARVARD 2

With a two-goal lead and 10 minutes left to play in regulation, it seemed that the Crimson had all the cushion it needed to cruise to its seventh-straight victory. But unfortunately for Harvard, that streak would be bookended by losses to the Engineers, whose forechecking style stumped the Crimson twice this season.

When Amanda Castignetti scored at 11:19 in the third, Harvard still a one-goal lead. But a little over eight minutes later, RPI senior Allison Wright found the puck on a breakaway. With 35 seconds left in regulation, she sent it past Bellamy.

“It was just a nice shot from the top of the circle,” Buesser said. “They had that one rush.”

Ironically, the period in which Harvard was outscored was the only one in which it managed to outshoot the Engineers, who held a 25-14 shot advantage through two periods.

“We don’t like to give up a lot of shots,” Buesser said. “We may have been too focused on offense and forgotten about defense. We need to get back to that mindset.”

But the Crimson didn’t figure things out fast enough to stop Wright, whose stick would again prove lethal in the extra frame.

Wright scored two goals within a minute of ice time to turn Harvard’s one-goal lead on its head, giving RPI a 3-2 overtime victory. The senior’s second goal of the night came 19 seconds into extra time—and mirrored the score of last year’s ECAC semifinal contest, when the Engineers ended the Crimson’s season in an overtime heartbreaker.

“I think they were able to win [a faceoff] on the offensive end,” Buesser said. “It was a backhand that went through a tiny hole in our goaltender.”

However small the hole might have been, it was just big enough to let the game slip through it.

“Friday night was tough,” Buesser said. “Coach Stone tells us to think about it till midnight and then put it behind us.”

—Staff writer Christina C. McClintock can be reached at ccmcclin@fas.harvard.edu.